Crick African Network

Africa is disproportionately burdened by infectious diseases.

• 70% of people living with HIV/AIDS live in Africa.
• 75% of global HIV-TB cases are found in Africa.
• Africa has 90% of worldwide childhood malaria deaths

The Crick African Network has been created to address this.

The network is the result of a £6.8m grant through the UK Research & Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). The grant commenced on the 1 October 2017, and will conclude on 31 March 2023.
 

Leadership

The Programme is led by Jean Langhorne, and five African partner institutes:

• University of Ghana
• Stellenbosch University
• University of Cape Town
• MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM
• MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit and LSHTM

Our work

Training workshops and symposia

To begin the partnership, the Crick African Network delivered four collaborative events across each of the African partner institutions in their respective countries between December 2017-March 2018. The events had a three-day programme which comprised of a one-day scientific symposium open to all local staff and students, and a two-day research methods workshop targeted at around 20 post-doctoral scientists in each location. These enabled updates on the latest research taking place across partners, as well as advanced training in grant-writing.

Postdoctoral fellowships

The main feature of the Crick African Network is the delivery of 18 African Career Accelerator awards, over the course of three years. Each individual award has a duration of around two and a half years, with the time being spent between the Crick and on the African continent at one of the five African partner institutes. Fellowships have a value of approximately £200k each.

During their individual awards, fellows have access to state-of-the-art research facilities as well as advanced training opportunities to drive their own research agendas. Fellows also submit grant applications in order to make the transition to becoming independent researchers situated on the African continent, and thereby become internationally and locally-networked future African research leaders in the infectious diseases of poverty. 

Supporting the transition to independence 

Fellows are supported to make the transition to research independence through training in leadership, grant writing and technical skills.

The programme alumni have progressed their own careers by furthering their research in infectious diseases and building training capacity for the next generation of African scientists on the continent, using the skills they have developed during their fellowships. Read more about their stories below.